The expedition is coordinated by Allen Allison, senior zoologist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. Allison obtained his B.S and Ph.D. from UC Davis and has organized and led numerous research expeditions over the past 40 years in Papua New Guinea.

California’s coastal redwoods are one of the state’s most prominent icons, drawing more than 2 million visitors a year. Another prominent icon? Fog, winding its way across the coast and through the trees. Climate change may be impacting both of them.

Plants imported into the United States sometimes hold more than leaves and stems. They also can transport hidden, non-native pests and pathogens that can cause substantial ecological and economic damage if they establish in the environment.

Pests, such as this citrus long horned beetle, can be accidentally imported in cross-border shipments of live plants. (Wikipedia)

In the United States, that pathway is growing. Over the past four decades, the dollar value of imported plants has grown at 68 percent per decade. One means of reducing their entry is to inspect live plant imports at the U.S. border.

Under certain conditions, forests can grow in response to climate change

By Kat Kerlin

After a tip-off from nomadic herders, a team of scientists has confirmed reports of a forest expansion in eastern Tibet, a region dominated by ancient grasslands. The forest growth, unprecedented since 1760, is due to a combination of climatic changes: rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, increased water related to warming, and greater nutrient availability released by thawing permafrost.

New forests are encroaching on the alpine grasslands of Tibet. (Photo: Lucas Silva)

The world’s coral reefs are both stunningly beautiful and vital to ocean health, hosting a huge diversity of fish and marine life. And they are, as they always have been, under pressure from periodic natural disasters. However, a coral reef’s ability to recover from unavoidable and often unpredictable natural disasters, like hurricanes and tsunamis, may depend on human activities including fishing and pollution. UC Davis marine biologist Mike Gil is one of the scientists working to understand how reefs recover from natural disturbances in the presence of unnatural, man-made stressors.

With the increasing pace of globalization comes the movement of invasive non-native species around the planet. Although often seen as a “first-world problem,” a new study shows these invasions threaten the economies and livelihoods of residents in some of the world’s poorest nations.

The harlequin ladybird was introduced to North America from Asia in 1916 to control aphids. It has spread to Europe and though beloved by many, is considered a pest in some regions. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Today’s White House announcement of the National Microbiome Initiative will bring new funding and attention to better understand the billions of microbes that swarm around in and around us and probably play an important role in our health, food and environment. At UC Davis, many scientists are already exploring this hidden world. Here are a few of them.

Jonathan Eisen is one of the pioneers of studying microbe communities through genetic sequencing. His lab is involved in understanding the complete “Tree of Life,” and projects on microbial communities associated with buildings, as well as communities on different plants and animals, including people, dogs and cats. A prolific blogger, Eisen regularly calls out examples of excessive microbiome hype.

As the November 2015 Global Climate Change Conference COP21 concluded in Paris, 196 countries reached agreement on the reduction of fossil fuel use and emissions in the production and consumption of energy, even to the extent of potentially phasing out fossil fuels out entirely.

Both globally and in the U.S., energy production and use, as well as the transportation sectors, are the largest anthropogenic contributors of greenhouse gasses (GHG), which are believed to drive climate change. While there is scientific consensus regarding the relative importance of fossil fuel use, anti animal-agriculture advocates portray the idea that livestock is to blame for a lion’s share of the contributions to total GHG emissions.

Global carbon dioxide emissions are triggering permanent changes to ocean chemistry along the West Coast. Failure to act on this fundamental change in seawater chemistry, known as ocean acidification, is expected to have devastating ecological consequences for the West Coast in the decades to come, warns a multistate panel of scientists, including two from UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory.

Their report, issued this week, urges immediate action and outlines a regional strategy to combat the alarming global changes underway. Inaction now will reduce options and impose higher costs later, the report said.

Nectar doesn’t always taste so sweet, but honeybees and other pollinators still feed on it. Now UC Davis community ecologist Rachel Vannette has discovered why pollinators continue to forage on “toxic” or bitter-tasting nectar, despite what should be a deterrent.

In newly published research in the journal Ecology, Vannette notes that floral nectar is produced by many plants to reward pollinators, but this sugary secretion often contains chemical compounds that are bitter tasting or toxic, which should deter pollinators. Plants including citrus, tobacco (Nicotiana), milkweed (Asclepias), turtlehead (Chelone), Catalpa, and others produce nectar containing bioactive or toxic compounds.